Scott Parker will captain England in his seventh start. He has four substitute appearances. Photograph: Glyn Kirk/AFP/Getty Images

It was when Stuart Pearce had just finished announcing his England squad, in his first news conference as caretaker manager, that he moved to a quieter room through the labyrinthine corridors of Wembley's first floor and set out the qualities he wanted to see from the man he intended to appoint as captain.

Pearce recalled going to Afghanistan to give a talk to the troops about the values of leadership. "On the trip over there I thought: 'Well, how do I approach this? What key element do I believe is fundamental in a leader?' And the one word I could come up with was 'unselfish'."

His choice, he said, would be someone "whose team-mates know this fella is in it for their greater good, rather than his own. I will attempt to pick a captain who, I believe, has that sort of respect in the other players' eyes. Tony Adams had that, Paul Ince did, Alan Shearer, Terry Butcher, Bryan Robson. For all these guys, the team mattered a hell of a lot before individuals."

The consensus that day was that Pearce was talking about Steven Gerrard, England's captain in the last World Cup, but now we know the player he had in mind was Scott Parker, and it is news that has surprised even members of the Football Association's coaching staff.

Parker does, indeed, have the qualities of selflessness that Pearce had identified and has just won the England fans' player of the year award. Which is some turnaround given that he went almost four and a half years from winning his third cap, in the 2-0 defeat against Croatia in October 2006, to his fourth against Denmark last year.

He is also the reigning football writers' player of the year, despite being part of the West Ham United side that were relegated last season, and his signing is plainly a significant factor behind Tottenham Hotspur's improvement this season. Parker has won four out of five player of the month awards since arriving at the end of August, and probably deserves better than the disdain that has greeted his announcement in some quarters, such as Joey Barton's tweet this lunchtime: "Scott Parker ahead of Steven Gerrard.........I'm speechless. #whatafarce"

Yet we are still talking here about a man who has started only six England games, with a further four substitute appearances, in an international career that began in 2003. Gerrard, in contrast, has 89 caps, incorporating two World Cups and two European Championships, and has captained Liverpool since 2003, in which time he has lifted the Champions League. However much Pearce will argue it is not intended as a slight on the Liverpool player, it is easy to understand why it is being construed that way.

One theory that has been put forward is that Pearce simply has misgivings about how long Gerrard should play for against Holland when he is coming off the back of Sunday's exhausting Carling Cup final and has not trained fully with the rest of the squad. Yet Pearce said on Tuesday he had actually made up his mind a couple of weeks ago. "I wanted to see the interaction around the camp for a few days to see how individuals acted around each other. I knew my mind, and it's just confirmed to me who will captain the side."

In other words, Pearce has simply decided that Parker is better qualified for the job than Gerrard, five months his junior, and is not particularly bothered about the Liverpool player's superior experience or career path. It is a big call. A perception has grown around Fleet Street that Parker is a darling of the media, a player whose ability is exaggerated because of some well-placed friends in the pressbox. In truth, the almost unanimous feeling was that Gerrard would be invited to take over from John Terry.

Should it go wrong against Holland at Wembley tonight, this could easily be wheeled out as Exhibit A in terms of where Pearce went wrong. In another sense, at least Pearce is willing to show he is not simply going to go with the popular vote. More than likely, another manager will come in before Euro 2012 and have his own ideas. If that is Harry Redknapp, it may be he sticks with Parker. Yet Ledley King is the captain at Tottenham. If King is missing, Michael Dawson wears the armband. At best, Parker is third in line at White Hart Lane.

So there is still a good chance that Gerrard may yet be asked to lead out the team when England get their Euro 2012 campaign going against France in Donetsk on 11 June. For now, though, the great irony is that this is a time when Gerrard is going to have to show the qualities that Pearce had talked about – an understanding that the team is more important than individuals and he has to be unselfish. Whether he likes it or not is another matter entirely.